Let your characters be real to you
it is essential that the characters of your leading players be understood in order that their actions be under- standable. it is better to put the character drawing into the action itself. You may write in the cast that Martin Grimes is a miser. You must do more than this. You must show that he is a miser. This does not mean to pattern after "The Chimes of Normandy" and show old Grimes down cellar try¬ing to rob his golden eagles of their tail feathers. You can do it. Hundreds of others have. It is better, however, to get some small but suggestive bits of business that will convey the same impression and be less hackneyed. You can show him tuning some poor widow out of her home, but then you have to stop and tell all about the widow. You can show him receive the payment on a mortgage that may figure in the plot and then turning to his frugal meal of bread and water. Small but effective bits of business that convey uncon¬scious suggestion are to be preferred to scenes that obviously have no other purpose than to establish character. Do not drag Grimes into a scene and virtually say "Look at this man. He is Grimes. He is a miser." Let the spectator deduce the fact that Grimes is a miser, and while he marvels at his own cleverness he will be willing to admit that the story is good. Perhaps your heroine is a tom boy. To show that she is it is not required that the first five or six scenes shall be wasted to show her climbing trees, playing ball and throwing green apples at the minister's silk hat. Show her in a scene in which her character is established while the action is advanced. Perhaps she climbs a tree. The man she is to marry chances along and sits down to smoke a cigarette. He is startled when presently she comes tumbling out of the tree into his lap. If you do not use the tree perhaps she is running a race with her small brother and bumps into and knocks down the stranger. In either scene we get a double value in that we show character without seeming to do so and at the same time bring about the meeting between the protagonist and objective. Character drawing, where character drawing is necessary, is of the utmost importance, but it is not necessary to offer minute details of your leads or more than briefly indicate the minor cast. If you have a maid in attendance on your heroine, and it does not matter what sort of a maid she is, say simply that she is a maid and let her be grave or gay so long as her gravity or gaiety does not conflict with the humors of the more important personages. If the maid must be sympathetic then show in action that she is. In the ap¬pendix (A-3, Scene 1) it is shown that the maid is in sympathy with her mistress' feelings. It is just a momentary action, but it makes understandable her later assistance in the elopement (Scene 26. A-5. Scene 29. A-6.) There is no elaborate attempt to show that Ruth appeals to the maid to help her. We see in that first scene that the maid feels much as her mistress does. Later actions are per- fectly understandable. No special scene has been required. Perhaps your story runs that your heroine marries the first man who asks her hand merely to escape her miserable home. If she merely snatched at the first man to propose, the action would not be clear, but if you first show that her home life is miserable because her father is a brute, a drunkard or a miser, then you make it understood that this treatment has formed her character. By estab- lishing the fact, you help to establish her character and also aid the motivation of the story. If the girl marries without love and for no apparent reason you show her a man-struck little fool. Having clearly established the reason for the marriage we can become inter- ested in the outcome of the marriage. Should you wish to show that this man she marries is a brute, you do not write in a series of scenes wherein he goes about breaking cripples' crutches and stealing pennies from little children. In drawing, caricature is but an exaggeration of natural line, and in drama travesty is an overemphasis. In sketching character there is a tendency to overdo that will result in caricature instead of proper line and turn your scenes to travesty. Instead of this gross emphasis, you write into some exisiting scene a bit of business wherein the husband runs into and knocks down an old man. Instead of apologizing and assisting him to his feet, he rushes on, shouting back a curse. Now we know that the man is altogether a brute and that his attitude toward his wife is not due to his dislike for her but is merely a manifestation of his general character. To draw character you must know what the character of each of your personages is and have them act always in consonance with their characters. You cannot show your heroine a frisky, frothy young person in one scene and in the next show her a woman of strong emotions and great depth of feeling. You cannot, on the other hand, introduce her as a woman of fine mental development and great depth of feeling and later show her leaving her husband on the impulse of the moment. The frothy young woman would leave her husband because he tried to break a plate with the biscuit she baked, but the woman of more mature temperament would not act in this manner; she would require great and long-continued provocation. You must match action to modes of thought and not have your story- people act at variance with their established characteristics merely to help you out of a hole. It is all very well to explain to yourself that a great moment will completely change a person's character. Sometimes it does, but the moment must be a very great one to bring about so revo¬lutionary a change. It is necessary to select a type of character for each person and hold to that type, unless a change in character is a basis of your story, when you must prepare your audience for the change by showing a gradual deepening in feeling. You cannot show a woman marrying on impulse and then patiently enduring humiliation and ill-treatment through feelings of love or a realization that she has brought this misery upon herself. She may conceal her woes through feelings of pride, but if she married on impulse she is more apt to divorce on impulse. She will not suffer in silence and patience merely because you think it will make the story more effective. Effect does not arise from inconsistent action. You cannot have your personages change their characters as they do their coats. If you have shown your villain to be a seeker after novelty and a lover of fleshly delights, you cannot, without warn¬ing, present him in a noble act of renunciation. He cannot be made to abandon his pursuit of the heroine merely because he realizes that it is for her own moral good. He may give her up because her brother is a better fighter or because he has seen her husband buying a gun, but he will not abandon her pursuit merely for the sake of her soul's salvation. The beginner is too apt- to be guided by action and dramatic effect rather than by logic, but illogical action is neither dramatic nor effective. It may make a great scene when Tom Darnton is about to elope with Jim Bolton's wife to have her little child cry and have Tom pause beside the cradle and exclaim "Alas! M'ree! I fear this cannot be. I cannot take you from this innocent little child!" It may make a great scene, to the author's mind, but too many spectators, knowing Tom's character, are apt to argue that he will be back presently with two railroad tickets and a bottle of soothing syrup. If, however, you prepare for the event by showing that Tom's one redeeming trait is a love for children, then, through this establishment of character, we are prepared for the unexpected turn. To summarize, let your characters be real to you and you will make them real to your audiences. Make them inconsistent and your story as well will be inconsistent. Category:Character